Were Facebook and Twitter Consistent in Labeling Misleading Posts During the 2020 Election?
In an essay for Lawfare Blog, Samantha Bradshaw of American University and Shelby Grossman of the Stanford Internet Observatory explore whether two key platforms, Facebook and Twitter, were internally consistent in how they applied their labels during the 2020 presidential election.
As the U.S. midterm elections approach, misleading information could undermine trust in election processes. The 2020 presidential election saw false reports of dead people voting, ballot harvesting schemes, and meddling partisan poll workers. These narratives spread across online and traditional media channels, particularly social media, contributing to a lasting sense that the election was tainted. As of July 2022, 36 percent of U.S. citizens still believed that Joe Biden did not legitimately win the election.
